A bright and bold Lemon Spaghetti with Shrimp recipe that’s always a winner at my house!
You’ll love this dish for it’s simplicity and for how quickly it can be put together on a busy weeknight! Or even for those very special weekend dinners too!
This dish features succulent colossal shrimp, marinated in an Italian gremolata sauce which is quite simply a condiment. This condiment is a mixture of fresh parsley, garlic and lemon which enhances the fresh flavours.
Add a little extra virgin olive oil and you’ve got yourself a quick aromatic marinade for shrimp.
The marinated shrimp are pan seared and served over a platter of lemon parmesan pasta.
It’s so easy to put together and with a little planning and prepping ahead of time you can have dinner ready in approximately 30 minutes.
Ingredients For Italian Gremolata
With a few simple ingredients, fresh is always best!
- Parsley: Use Italian flat leaf parsley as it’s much more fragrant than the curly variety.
- Garlic: Rather than chopping the garlic try mincing it for a less pungent flavour since the shrimp cook rather quickly.
- Lemon Zest: Lemon zest adds lots of flavour. Make sure to use only the colourful part and not the pith of the lemons which is quite bitter.
Preparing And Marinating Black Tiger Shrimp
I used frozen, raw easy peel shrimp for this lemon shrimp pasta recipe. Frozen shrimp are always convenient to have on hand and an ideal choice for busy weeknights!
The shells are pre-cut and the shrimp are deveined for you. All you need to do is defrost the shrimp then peel back the shell while leaving the tail intact.
There are a couple of ways you can defrost the shrimp:
- Overnight thaw: Simply place the shrimp in the fridge the night before you plan to cook with them.
- Quick thaw: Remove the shrimp from their packaging and place the shrimp in a colander. Run cold water over the shrimp for about 6 minutes or until thawed. Then simply drain and pat dry before marinating the shrimp.
You can do this ahead of time and keep the shrimp in the fridge until you’re ready to marinate them.
Cooking Black Tiger Shrimp For Lemon Pasta
Once marinated with the parsley, garlic, lemon and oil, set them aside for about 15-20 minutes. This allows the time to bring a large pot of water to a roaring boil.
The amount of time to cook the shrimp will depend on their size. Mine were the 8/12 count per pound and required about 2 minutes or so on each side.
These 8/12 count per pound are also referred to as super colossal sized shrimp, but can sometimes vary depending on the vendor.
They’re far meatier than the smaller shrimp and quite satisfying even to the carnivores in my family.
How to Make Lemon Shrimp Spaghetti
Although these quick pan seared shrimp are magnificent all on their own, they compliment the lemon parmesan spaghetti quite deliciously.
- Once you have your shrimp marinating in the parsley, garlic and lemon sauce, bring a large pot of water to boil.
- This will give the shrimp sufficient time for a quick marinade while you prepare the lemon parmesan sauce for the spaghetti.
- When the water comes to a roaring boil, salt and add in the pasta.
- Cook the pasta according to package directions.
- Meanwhile, heat a large skillet over medium heat.
- Sprinkle the shrimp with salt and pepper.
- Add the shrimp to the hot pan and sear for approximately 2 minutes on each side. This largely depends on the size of your shrimp.
- If your skillet is small, you can cook them in batches.
- When the pasta is ready, drain and toss with the lemon sauce.
There are two ways to bring this magnificent dish to the table!
You can transfer the lemon spaghetti onto a serving platter and top the pasta with the pan seared shrimp, a sprinkle of chopped fresh parsley and a little drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. And let your family help themselves!
Or you can plate individual servings, topped with an equal amount of the lemon garlic shrimp, a dash of chopped parsley and a slight drizzle of the olive oil. This way there’s no infighting amongst siblings!
Servings for lemon shrimp pasta:
Twirling the spaghetti as in the photo will easily yield 6 portions, measuring approximately 1 1/2 cups cooked pasta per serving. I find this more than enough when serving a multiple coarse meal.
However, when served as a main dish with a salad on the side, you will have 4 very generous portions indeed!
Make it tonight and impress friends and family with this relatively easy to make, shrimp over pasta dish.
And, if you love shrimp pasta dishes as much as I do, you might also enjoy this Spaghettoni with Shrimp and Peppers recipe
Happy Cooking!
This recipe was originally published April 6, 2016 and republished January 22, 2021 with updated photos and content.
Lemon Spaghetti with shrimp
Ingredients
GREMOLATA MARINADE FOR SHRIMP
- 908 grams large shrimp shelled and deveined
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- lemon zest from 2 lemons
- 1/2 cup chopped parsley
- 4 cloves of garlic minced
- sea salt and freshly ground pepper
LEMON PASTA SAUCE
- 454 grams spaghetti
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/3 cup lemon juice
- lemon zest from one lemon
- 1/2 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
- 1/2 cup chopped parsley
- salt and pepper to your taste I used fine sea salt
Instructions
PREP SHRIMP GREMOLATA MARINADE
- In a bowl toss together the shrimp, extra virgin olive oil, lemon zest, chopped parsley and minced garlic.
- Set aside to marinate at room temperature for about 20 minutes.
FOR THE PASTA
- Meanwhile bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
- When water reaches a rapid boil, salt the water and toss in the spaghetti. Cook according to package instructions.
WHILE THE PASTA COOKS
- While the pasta cooks, heat a large skillet over medium high heat.
- Sprinkle the shrimp with salt and pepper and cook in a single layer, for about 2 minutes on each side, depending on the size of the shrimp.
- Also, depending on the size of your pan, you may have to cook the shrimp in 2 batches.
- Once the shrimp are cooked transfer them to a plate and set aside.
LEMON PASTA SAUCE
- Whisk together the 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, 1/3 cup lemon juice and zest, freshly grated cheese, parsley and a dash of salt and pepper.
- Drain the spaghetti, reserving about 1 cup of pasta water.
- Return the drained pasta to the pot.
- Pour the lemon sauce over the drained pasta and toss to combine.
- Add a little bit of the reserved pasta water if needed.
- You'll want to add just enough of the reserved pasta water to moisten the spaghetti.
- Toss well.
- Transfer the spaghetti onto a serving platter and top with the pan seared shrimp.
- Sprinkle with a dash of chopped parsley and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.
- You can bring the assembled platter to the table and let everyone help themselves or make individual servings topped with an equal amount of shrimp, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and garnished with parsley.
- And pass the cheese if you wish. I'm all for extra cheese!